In a separate article, we provide new WordPress users with a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you would like to know more about the benefits of using themes and what makes themes unique, then go here to read our post: An Introduction to WordPress Themes
In this article, you will learn where to look for free and paid themes for your WordPress website or blog. You will also learn about the different types of WordPress theme resources and get tips on how to make sure that you get the right themes for your needs and avoid having to deal with problems like lack of product support and poorly-coded themes.
As explained in our previously-mentioned article, a theme is a special kind of web design template used on WordPress-powered websites and blogs and designed to work specifically with WordPress in mind.
Many web designers and web design houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WP community can access thousands of excellent themes designed for many purposes and needs.
Finding Great Responsive Themes For WordPress: So Many Choices … Where To Begin?
Let’s say you were to go to Google and type key phrases like the following:
- best themes for WordPress
- WordPress themes free
- best paid WordPress themes for business (type in whatever your business, search topic or website is about)
You are probably going to get an overwhelming amount of information to sort through in the search results.
So, to help you save time and make your life easier, we’ll just cut through the clutter and make the process of finding great WordPress themes simple.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Themes
Before we start, you should know that WordPress offers both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll cover these differences in a later post. For now, we’ll only cover the topic of finding themes for the self-hosted version of WordPress (WordPress.org) in this post, as these give you more freedom, more options and more control over your site’s web design.
Free vs Paid Themes
Next, it’s important to know that there are both Free and Paid themes made available. Free themes are generally distributed as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be sold as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
Theme Directories vs Commercial Theme Design Houses
There are two types of places where you can find themes. The first type of place is in theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second type of place are the commercial and independent WP theme stores.
WP theme marketplaces and WP theme directories are big aggregators of themes. WordPress theme developers (both commercial and independent) list their themes (both free and paid) in the marketplace or directory and visitors search for these just like they would if they were shopping for apps on an app store or software directory.
Some of the larger marketplaces don’t just sell WordPress themes. They can also sell WordPress plugins and templates for other web applications (e.g. Joomla, Drupal, etc.)
Commercial and independent theme design houses typically design both free and commercial WP themes, and can vary in size, from an individual theme developer or a small team of developer, to large web and theme design and development companies.
Most commercial or independent theme shops sell their themes exclusively on their own web sites, but some will also list their themes in marketplaces and directories, or even create a free or “lite” version of their themes for free WordPress theme directories .
Let’s now show you where to find great themes for your website or blog.
Where To Find WordPress Themes For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – WP Themes Directory)
The official WordPress.org theme directory is the largest and best place to find free WP themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free WP theme directory you should use when looking for free WordPress themes. The reason why, is because –as some free software users have learned– downloading free software, add-ons, apps, templates or themes from untrustworthy places can put your computer, digital presence … even your entire business at risk.
The WP theme directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your website, but it also relies on a team of theme reviewers comprised of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers to review and ensure that each theme uploaded to the directory meets specific standards of quality and security.
To browse thousands of excellent FREE WordPress themes from the official WP Themes Repository, go here:
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/themes
Find WordPress Themes Inside Your Dashboard
Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every theme in the WordPress directory and not only find what you are looking for, but also easily install and start using it directly from inside your WP dashboard with a couple of mouse clicks.
Use The Theme Filtering
WordPress has a built-in filtering function inside the admin area that lets you narrow down your search for themes based on criteria like Colors, Layout and Features …
This makes it easier to find what you are looking for. For example, you could search for themes with a blue colour design, with a 2-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.
Note: in another post where we discuss the importance of using “responsive” themes, we explained how these allow your site to be viewed without problems across all devices (e.g. computers, tablets and smartphones) …
You should use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filter lets you search across its entire database of free themes …
… and bring up only themes that have been built using “responsive” design standards …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free WP Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that it costs nothing to download and use the theme. Additionally, many free themes are professionally designed and provide a number of built-in customizable settings, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.
The downside of using free WP themes are that your themes may not get updated as often with new features and bug fixes, and it’s unrealistic to expect the developer to provide dedicated support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most free themes will ask you for a donation to help cover their costs of providing support and updates, bug fixes, etc..
When downloading free themes, therefore, check to see when the theme was last updated. If it’s been more than 1 year since any updates were last made, then you should think twice about using it, as the theme may have been abandoned by its developer.
If you’re just getting started and your website is still quite new, there is nothing wrong with using a free theme until you have a better idea of the kind of site design that would work best for your site before spending money on premium themes. Who knows, the theme you downloaded for free may just be the thing that works for your site and your business.
Now that we’ve seen how to find free WordPress themes in the WordPress.org theme directory and how to narrow down your search for themes that meet your specific criteria, it’s time to turn our attention to finding paid themes.
Premium Themes
If you are looking for themes with stunning design, or professional quality yet highly affordable WordPress web design themes with a distinctive look, unique customizable options and responsive support, then search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:
Theme Marketplaces
ThemeForest
ThemeForest is one of the largest and most popular theme marketplaces online.
ThemeForest lets many professional WP theme creators showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are currently over 17,500 premium themes to choose from (some starting from as little as $3) …
(click on the images above to view all themes on ThemeForest)
If you visit the ThemeForest theme directory, you will be able to browse for specific WordPress themes in various categories, such as:
- Blog/Magazine – themes for bloggers and green living blogs, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for business sites and marketing purposes.
- Creative – themes suitable for creative work, crafts, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes suitable for sites related to travel, buy & sell, tourism directories, etc.
- eCommerce – themes for online shopping, event bookings and registrations, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for photo gallery blogs, restaurants, etc.
- Mobile – e.g. retina-ready themes.
- NonProfit – themes for nonprofit organizations, charities, etc.
- Real Estate – themes for real estate and real estate listings (e.g. rentals, etc.)
- Retail – themes for shopping, trades or professionals (repairers, dental practitioners, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to hosting, newsletters, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and marriage celebrant blogs
- Miscellaneous – themes suitable for topics related to activism, parenting sites or blogs … even themes you can use if your site is still under-construction!
When you purchase WordPress themes from ThemeForest, you will receive email notifications when a new update is available for your theme …
(ThemeForest emails you theme update notifications)
Browse thousands of great themes in the ThemeForest directory here:
Creative Market
(click on the images above to view more Creative Market themes)
Creative Market is another leading WordPress theme marketplace where you can browse many quality premium WP themes from independent theme creators.
As stated on their website …
“Creative Market is a platform for handcrafted, mousemade design content from independent creatives around the world.”
Creative Market doesn’t just sell WP themes in its marketplace, but you can easily browse hundreds of WP themes and search through their theme categories (e.g. Portfolio or Commerce themes, etc.) from their dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of great premium themes crafted by independent WP theme developers in the Creative Market theme marketplace here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the images above to browse all Mojo themes)
Mojo is a marketplace for premium WP themes where theme vendors are strongly encouraged to provide customers with lifetime support and upgrades.
According to their website …
“Mojo is a marketplace where anyone can find, rate and buy quality themes & templates in one trusted place.”
Like Envato and Creative Market, Mojo doesn’t focus exclusively on WP themes, but you can easily go through all of their WP themes and search through their theme categories (e.g. Responsive or Photography themes and theme frameworks, etc.) by choosing the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find great premium themes in the Mojo themes directory here:
Now that we have looked at WordPress theme marketplaces, let’s take a look at commercial theme developers.
Commercial And Independent Theme Design Companies
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a selection of high quality themes and the option of accessing all themes through a WordPress theme membership.
(click on images above to see all themes from SoloStream)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes creates stunning themes for WordPress that are very popular and highly sought after by website users and also offers a membership option that lets you access all themes in their growing WordPress theme collection.
(click on the above images to view all WooThemes themes)
StoreFront
StoreFront specializes in e-commerce themes for WordPress. Their themes also integrate well with some of the most powerful e-commerce platforms and plugins available.
(click on the images above to see more StoreFront themes)
StudioPress
StudioPress designs WordPress themes based on a framework that enables users to quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress website, and provides an auto-updating design architecture, turn-key designs with beautiful frames for the content and unprecedented control of the framework.
Many web developers like this framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps the framework frequently up-to-date to reflect best practices for coding and to make sure that it always remains compatible with the latest WordPress version, but because you can update themes built using the Genesis framework without losing any customizations you may have made to your theme.
This is because StudioPress themes use something called “child themes,” which are like “skins” that sit on top of the theme framework and gives your site its unique look and feel.
If this sounds too technical, don’t worry about it. StudioPress themes are easy to work with, just like all other WordPress themes. The great thing about choosing StudioPress themes is that you pay one low price to receive unlimited support and updates, and you can install your themes on unlimited domains.
For more details, click here: StudioPress.
(click on the images above to see more themes from StudioPress)
WordPress Theme-Checking Tools
Let’s finish this article with some useful WordPress theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:
What WordPress Theme Is That WP Theme Checker
What WordPress Theme Is That? is a free online tool that lets you easily detect what WP theme a website or blog uses (including parent and child themes).
This is a great resource if you ever come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what theme is being used on the website.
Tip: If you can’t tell if a site runs on WordPress or not, we have published a a great tutorial that shows you how to tell whether or not a web site uses WordPress: Was My Website Built Using WordPress? How To Tell
Using this tool is very simple. Just enter the site’s domain name into the field and click the search icon or hit “Enter.” The tool will not only confirm whether or not a site is built on WordPress software, but it will also list the WP theme being used and list any plugins it detects.
- To use this online tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That
- To learn how to use this tool go here: Is It A WordPress Website?
Theme Authenticity Checker - WordPress Plugin
A word of warning: If you decide to use FREE themes for your WordPress site, we recommend sticking with the approved themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.
A commonly-used tactic employed by a number of hacking groups and cyber criminals is to put up websites and directories offering “Free” WordPress themes all over the web and distribute themes and plugins with malicious code embedded in their files. In fact, some of these sites even display on search engine results for phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free WordPress themes”” etc. It’s best, therefore, to stick with the official WordPress theme repository, or use established and trusted sites.
If you are concerned about whether a WordPress theme that you have installed on your blog may contain potentially malicious or unwanted code, you can use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to perform a scan of your WordPress theme files. The TAC plugin scans the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of injected code and outputs a report …
(TAC Report Page – Screenshot Source: Plugin)
We hope that you have found this information useful.
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